Gran Canaries

This was our last trip as a group and it was awesome. We stayed at these bungalows that were pretty much across the street from the beach and the sand dunes. We had to walk about 200-300 yards through sand dunes to get to the ocean. The Canary Islands are off the west coast of Africa. The first day at the beach it was windy so sand was getting every and it hurt when it pelted us. The wind kind of sucked, but we just went swimming in the ocean and made the most of it. We all went out later that night to a club and had a great time dancing and drinking. The next day we made breakfast at our bungalows and headed back to the beach and there was no wind this day so it was much nicer. The beach was a nude beach, so we saw some stuff that we probably wish we wouldnt have. The part of the island we were at had a lot of draw for retired people on vacation and gay people. There were also a lot of swinger clubs. There were probably at least 100 miniture golf courses with-in a 5 mile radius and a lot of the buildings and shopping centers were build to look like miniture golf courses. It was pretty weird. We pretty much just hung out the whole time at the beach and at the pool at our bungalows other than the one night we went out. The weather was great and all of us got burnt. I probably got 14 hours of sleep the whole weekend so when we got back on Monday I was beat. I slept for 12 hrs and it took me all weekend to catch back up on my sleep. It was an awesome last trip with all my new friends and now I have my last week at school and finals. Today is my last Sunday in Madrid. Im starting to get bummed out, but it has been such an awesome experience and I am definitely fortunate and blessed to be able to have had the opportunity.

San Sebastian

I went to San Sebastian this last weekend, and so far it is my favorite place I have been to in Spain and possibly out of the other places as well. San Sebastian is in the north of Spain and its just this smaller town that is right on the ocean and has two different beaches. One is more for surfing than the other. There are 2 mountains on either side of the cove/beach that have amazing views of the city and the countryside. The weather the first day was cloudy and it lightly rained, but the next day we go lucky and the weather cleared out so for the afternoon we had sunny blue skies and went to the beach and jumped in the ocean. The water was freezing, but refreshing. San Sebastian is pretty well known for its pinchos or tapas. At pretty much at all of the bars there is just trays of tons of different types of pinchos or tapas sitting on top of the bar. You just grab 1 or 2 and eat it standing there at the bar. It is a really cool setting. On saturday the town came alive and there were people everywhere on the streets and tons of soccer games going on on the beach. There were also a lot of crew teams out in the ocean. This is the first place that I have thought that I could actually live. Northern Spain is much more green and has way more trees and you could live in the country and have a 15 or 20min drive to San Sebastian. Awesome weekend.

Salamanca

I have not been good about keeping this updated so im going to try to catch you up. Two weeks ago I went to Salamanca with the school. Salamanca has the oldest university in Spain and is a fairly big college town. It is not a huge city, but it is very authentic. There are many tapas bars, the plaza mayor, the university, and the big cathedral that has influence from both the gothic and roman era. There is also a river that runs through the town. Salamanca was cool, but i was told that it is better to stay the night to get the experience with it being a college town, but i did not do that cause I went only for a day trip with the school. The university was cool because after you received your Phd your name would get written on the wall with some kind of blood and after so many years there was faded writing on the walls of blood. Also there used to be a saint named, Padre Lucero, i believe, and he taught at the university and was know to be very intelligent. After he died they put a statue of him in the cathedral and you can sit in a chair and put your feet on his statue and it is a superstition that you will receive his knowledge. I guess many students do this even to this day before finals and exams.

Portugal (Spring Break)

Im sure you all think im just traveling and not even doing school, but just so you know I recieved A's on both my midterms. Portugal was probably my favorite place yet. We started in the north of Portugal in Porto and stayed there for 3 days and then took the train to Lisbon for another 4 days. I thought as a city Porto was much cooler than Lisbon, but in Lisbon went to 2 different little towns about 30min outside the city by train that were amazing. They were the town of Cascais, which is just this little coastal town with cliffs all along the beach. We went to this place called "boca de inferno" or "hells mouth" and its right on the cliff and we watched the sunset there and the whole time waves are just crashing against the cliffs. The other place just outside of Lisbon was Sintra. Sintra is basically a huge mountain that has a few different castles on it from the 16th or 17th century. It was awesome cause we hiked to the top of the mountain and from the top was 360 degree views of the countryside of Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean. Back in Porto we went and did a few wine tastings and just walked the streets. We went out to the beach as well in Porto cause here in Madrid we all miss the beach. Its the only thing Madrid is missing. In both of our hostels we met all sorts of cool people from all over the place and would go out every night with everyone. Spring break in Portugal was awesome and I recommend going if you can.

I forgot to mention that the last night in Lisbon we threw a mustache/unibrow party in our hostel so there is also a picture of that

Las Fallas, Valencia

We only went to Las Fallas for the day on Friday and it was out of control. We left Madrid at 9am and had to be back on the bus at 2:30am on Saturday. Las Fallas is a celebration for San Jose who is a saint in Spain i guess, but for me it was a celebration with fireworks and fire. Artists spend a year constructing these huge statues called "fallas" and only one of the statues wins... the others get burnt to the ground. Some of them are as tall as a 6 story buildings. They are all made out of foam, paper, and wood and the detail of the fallas is crazy. I was able to buy fireworks to throw around the street so i was stoked. I was like a little kid in a candy store. My friends that i was with didnt like me playing with the fireworks to much, so at one point I kinda split ways from them so I could play with my fireworks. We watched the 3rd place winner of the contest get burnt to the ground and before lighting it on fire they had a firework show for it and then within a matter of minutes the whole thing was up in flames. Firemen were hosing the thing down to control the flames and everyone was getting ashes rained all over them. We had to run back to the bus to make it so we didnt get left in Valencia, but it was worth it. Las Fallas was awesome!

Barcelona

This last weekend in Barcelona went by way to quick. We definitely needed more time to see everything. On thursday night my buddy and I stayed in a hostel where we met someone who claimed to be Jesus and said he was from heaven. To say the least he was a pretty interesting guy. The next day we walked around the gothic part of Barcelona and then through a park and then down along the beach. We got lucky again with the weather because last monday in Barcelona it was snowing and both days this weekend was sunny and hot. We met up with our other friends from San Diego later on friday and then went to a few bars that night. On saturday, since it was only my friends only full day, we did a bus tour of Barcelona all day so we could most of the city. We went out that night as well and ended up going to bed at 5am and had to get up at 9am to head to the airport. We were all exhausted the next day. If you go to Barcelona DO NOT fly into the Girona Airport cause its an hour and half from the city by bus. Anyways it was a cool weekend and im looking forward to going back with my mom

Tanger, Morocco (Africa)

Where to begin with Morocco... It was an awesome experience. I went with my friends Heather, Katie, and Steve and we all had a blast. It was supposed to be raining the whole weekend and we lucked out because we had awesome weather the first 2 days and then the 3rd day was not that great. The hotel we stayed at was about a 15 min walk to the beach and about 15 min walk to whats called the Medina, or where all the little markets are. The first day we just wondered around and since Heather and Katie were the only 2 blonds in all of Tanger we were getting all sorts of comments. We thought it was smarter to just keep walking instead of talking back. We only had one person that was a kinda of hostile, the others just made remarks. We ended up on this cliff that overlooked the port of Tanger and we could see across the straight of Gibraltar to Spain. It was a sweet overlook. The next day we hired a cab to take us to a place called Grotto Hercule and its a cave on the Atlantic Ocean that was naturally shaped in the form of Africa. It was a really cool drive to the cave through the mountains and at the top it overlooked Tanger. The next day we went to a town about 2 and a half hours away called Chefchaquen and its a town that is right at the base of the Riff Mountains. It was a very cool little town. While we were on the mountainside overlooking the town it started to rain and by the time we walked back to the town center it was pouring. There were legitimate rivers flowing in the streets within 5 mins of this downpour. We were all soaked from head to toe. The whole time we ate at these 2 different restaurants because they were so cheap and we could get whole pizzas. We did eat some authentic food like kebabs and in the morning at the hotel they had what i think was authentic food. The 4 of us just hung out at night in the hotel cause we didnt feel like wondering the streets other than to the store and restaurant. Morocco was definitely an experience of a lifetime.